Spices of the Season

In my mind, autumn is here. The past few nights, it has been milder out. A few nights ago, it actually dipped below 70. That was such a foreign feeling, something I hadn't actually experienced in so long, that my senses were duped into believing that fall really was upon me. Considering how my pro-fall agenda was moving forward with or without the cooperation of the climate, it was a very pleasant surprise. (Also because I'm sick of triple-digit temperatures.) Indeed, I have come back around to a lot of music I for some reason generally associate with fall.

As I intended, I decorated my apartment for fall the day after Labor Day. Garlands, candle holders, a lighted grapevine pumpkin, and even strands of light in red, orange, and yellow to accompany the garlands of leaves. It's the first time I've ever really had full-on autumn decorations. Partly, I'm compensating for the fact that we don't really get proper autumn foliage down here. Partly, I'm just a consumer whore, but partly, I did it to celebrate my own independence.

Mainly, though, I've created a sanctuary. My apartment is more than where I hang my hat, now. As you well know by now, I'm all about atmosphere. Good lighting, good colors, good smells, all of it warm and inviting. That is, until after Thanksgiving. At that point, I'll replace it with Christmas cheer! (Man, it must suck to grow up Jewish!)

Dude, I even have Halloween candy already. They haven't even started selling real pumpkins at Wal-Mart yet, and I have a pumpkin-shaped basket of Halloween candy on the table! Appropriately enough, lately I've been bouncing old ideas back and forth with the Captain, revisited ideas for Halloween-set horror screenplays. Fun stuff indeed.

Now, three fragments of memories are nagging at my mind.

One, I'm thinking back to Kansas City, to the Oak Street Coffee Shop. I was invited to a VIP party, sort of a regular-customer-appreciation deal with free snacks, coffee, and a fantastic live Irish band that I wish I remembered the name of. But they sounded like Lunasa, whom I already linked to once in this post. I'm sitting there, absorbing my coffee, truly relaxing. Come to think of it, I don't think that was even during the fall. I'm pretty sure all the leaves were green in that memory.

Two, I'm thinking farther back to Truman State University, for some reason. I'm sitting at a table in the Student Union dining room, alone, savoring a hot personal pizza and breadsticks combo from Godfather's Pizza. The bigscreen TV is on in the back corner, and some people are watching some controversial coverage about, I don't know, President Bush; meanwhile, I'm wearily staring out the frosted window at the waning gray-blue light of a late November evening. It's sleeting out, but I have hot comfort food. I don't know what it is, but for some reason I really want pizza right now, and I want it to be a nasty November evening in northeast Missouri.

Three, I'm thinking back even farther, before college. I'm playing Breath of Fire on SNES in my bedroom at night, a lamp glowing a warm citrine, while family members are each doing their thing, watching TV or whatever. The aroma of Mom's made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls is wafting down the hall to find my nose. As soon as I can save my game, I'm going to the kitchen to get me some!

But I'm at work. No pizza, no gourmet sandwiches, no cinnamon rolls. Dang. I have to remedy that ASAP. Maybe I shouldn't blog when I'm this hungry.

Here's a toast to autumn sanctuaries.